"Any" Means "Any"

From today's EEI newsletter:

Electricity Daily Analyzes Court's Decision on NSR Case

In an analysis published in today's Electricity Daily, the newsletter dissects the recent court decision to overturn the EPA's regulation on New Source Review (DEN, March 20, D.C. Appeals Court Panel Overturns New Source Review Rule).

Electricity Daily noted the decision "was written by Judge Judith W. Rogers, a Clinton appointee, and agreed to by Judges David Tatel, also a Clinton pick, and Janice Rogers Brown, a recent and controversial George W. Bush choice for the appellate court." Rogers was quoted as saying: "There is no reason the usual tools of statutory construction should not apply and hence no reason why 'any' should not mean 'any.' Indeed, EPA's interpretation would produce a 'strange' if not an 'indeterminate' result: a law intended to limit increases in air pollution would allow sources operating below applicable emission limits to increase significantly the pollution they emit without government review."

The newsletter said the court backed the arguments advanced by New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer "and a bevy of other attorneys general in the region" in opposition to a "bunch of AGs from coal states," concluding that the specificity of the Clean Air Act "is unequivocal."

Wrote the newsletter: "The act describes a modification as 'any physical change in, or change in the method of operation of, a stationary source which increases the amount of any air pollutant emitted by such source or which results in the emission of any air pollutant not previously emitted.'"

Electric Reliability Coordinating Council spokesman Scott Segal called the decision "disappointing." He was quoted as saying: "In light of the consistent actions taken in other federal circuit courts of appeal regarding the actual NSR enforcement cases, it appears that the NSR enforcement actions filed back in the late 1990s are on no firmer legal ground today than they were before NSR II was decided."

Electricity Daily, March 21.